USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana: containing a history of the townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies, etc., etc. > Part 26
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CONNERSVILLE TOWNSHIP.
ORGANIZATION AND BOUNDARIES-LAND SALES-EARLY SETTLEMENT AND INCIDENTS-EARLY SCHOOLS, EARLY MILLS, DISTILLERIES, ETC .- CHURCHES AND GRAVEYARDS-EAST CONNERSVILLE - MAPLEWOOD-HALF- CENTURY CITIZENS.
CONNERSVILLE TOWNSHIP was organized February 9, 1819, and its boundaries as then described were: "Beginning at the southeast corner of Section 5, Township 13, Range 13; thence west to the western extremity of said county of Fayette; thence north four miles; thence east to the line divid- ing Sections 20 and 17, in Township 14, Range 12; thence east to the northeast corner of Section 20, in Township 14, Range 13, south to the place of begin- ning." In addition to its present territory, the town- ship then included the two southern tiers of sections of Fairview Township, and the two northern tiers of sections of Orange Township, which land was taken from it on the organization of Orange Township, in 1822. It is the largest township of the county, hav- ing thirty-two full sections of land, and is centrally located.
LAND SALES.
The lands of the township as disposed of by the Government, with the year of sale and the purchas- ers' names, are set forth in the following list:
Township 14 north, Range 13 east.
Section 31, sold in 1811, to Samuel Harlan.
Section 30, sold in 1811, to Robert Brown, George Fragin, John Hughes and George R. Adair.
Section 19, sold in 1811, to Abraham and David Heaton, Robert Brown and Jacob Case.
Section 20, sold in 1812-13, to George Death, E. Homar, James Death, Sr., and Thomas Brown.
Section 29, sold in 1813-14-15, to Isaac Martin, Joel White, James Ward and Phineas McCray.
Section 32, sold in 1814-15, to James Freel, Dan- iel Conner, Robert Williams and John Wilson.
Township 13 north, Range 12 east.
Section 1, sold in 1811, 1813 and 1817, to Jeremiah Worshiam, James Teudy, Nathan Aldridge and Basil Roberts.
Section 2, sold in 1811-12, to William McConley, Roberts and Birson, Arthur Dixon and John Reed.
Section 3 sold in 1811 and 1814, to Joshua Por- ter, John Vance, Samuel Snodgrass and James Kitchen.
Section 4 sold in 1813 and 1814, to William Con- ner, John Thomas, Joseph Vance and Thomas Cully. Section 5 sold in 1813 and 1814, to William Maman, James Heron and John Thompson.
Fractional section in 1814 and 1820, to Benjamin Sailor, William Martin and William Dailey.
Township 14 north, Range 12 east.
Section 36 sold in 1811 and 1813, to Arthur Dixon, William Sparks, Larkin Sims and William Denman.
Section 27 sold in 1813, 1814 and 1815, to Abner Ball, John Henderson, Smith Lane and William Hall.
Section 28 sold in 1813, 1814, 1815, and 1816, to John Fallen, James Alexander, Thomas Smith and James Smith.
Section 29 sold in 1813, 1814, 1815 and 1816, to Alexander Saxon, James Alexander, James Smith and Jonas Williams, Jr.
Section 30 sold in 1814, 1820 and 1823, to Will- iam Sparks, Jonathan Eddy, Ira Wilcox, John McCrary and John McMillan.
Section 31 sold in 1812, 1820, 1821 and 1823, to Hezekiah Mount, John Gregg, Jonathan Wilson and Samuel Ennis.
Section 32 sold in 1813, 1814, 1816 and 1833, to John Vance, William Weir, William Bridges and James Greer.
Section 33 sold in 1811, 1814 and 1817, to Joseph Justice, William Snodgrass, John Hughes and Plat B. Dickson.
Section 34 sold in 1811, 1813 and 1814, to Thomas Reed, Moses Lockhart, James Brownlee and Thomas Hinkson.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Section 35 sold in 1811 and 1813, to John Russell, Joseph Miner, John Perin and H. and B. Sailor.
Section 23 sold in 1811 1812 and 1815, to Lewis Johnson, John Conner, Benjamin Sailor, Larkin Sims and A. Baily.
Section 24 sold in 1811 and 1812, to Jacob Cass, Jacob Hackleman, Benjamin Sailor and Noah Beau- camp.
Section 25 sold in 1811 and 1812 to James Adair, Alexander Saxon, John Conner and A. Tharpe.
Section 26 sold in 1811, 1814 and 1815, to A. Hathaway, Jonas Williams, John Perin and James Port.
Section 19 sold in 1821, 1822, 1824 and 1830, to John Huston, Scott Horsely, Isaac Martin, A. R. Orr, David Milton and Benjamin Huston.
Section 20 sold in 1811 and 1813, to Timothy Orr, Zachariah Glover, John Henderson and William Den- man.
Section 21 sold in 1811 and 1813, to David Milton, Paul Davis, Benjamin Bond and William Bennett.
Section 22 sold in 1811 and 1814, to Richard Tyner, Platt B. Dixon, Adam Hamilton and James Dehaven. Township 13 north, Range 13 east.
Section 5 sold in 1814 and 1815, to Daniel Norris, John Milliner and Cornelius Cummins.
Section 6 sold in 1811, 1813 and 1814, to Samuel Harlan, Richard Thomas, Cornelius Williams and Thomas Bray.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND INCIDENTS.
The first settlement in the township was made at Conner's trading-post or station, some time between the years 1804 and 1808. Hore John Conner and family are believed to have dwelt for several years among the Indians, with no white neighbors save those on East Fork and on West Fork in what are now Union and Franklin Counties. However, the lands surrounding him were settled at a period be- ginning about the year 1811.
Alexander Saxon with family emigrated from Georgia in the fall of 1811, and settled on the south- east quarter of Section 25. Near a point opposite where the lower mill in Connersville now stands, was the place for crossing the river. Here Mr. Saxon kept a canoe, and ferried travelers across the river.
The localities of settlement of a number of the following named pioneers can be traced by reference to the land entries given above. Moses Lockhart from Kentucky, settled in the township in 1812. Thomas Reed, from the same State, settled the same year. Joseph Minor located on the land where Joe and Sam Minor now live in 1812. John and Thomas Reed built cabins on the same land. They were father and son. Larkin Sims, from Kentucky, and
Tobias Smith, from Virginia, located on their land in 1812.
Thomas Sergeant, a native of North Carolina, removed with his parents to Virginia in 1796. In 1807 he removed to Kentucky, and in 1813 to Indiana Territory, and settled south of Connersville. In 1820 he entered land in Rush County Jat the land sales at Brookville, and that winter removed thereon, cutting the road for the wagon as he went.
Thomas Hinkson emigrated from Ireland to America in 1791, subsequently located in Adams County, Ohio, and in February, 1814, settled in this township on the land where his son Thomas, Jr., now resides, which he had entered at Cincinnati, in the year 1812. The elder Thomas Hinkson was appointed the first surveyor of the county by Gov. Jennings, which position he occupied a number of years. He did much of the early surveying in this and in adjoining counties, having laid out some of the early additions to Connersville. His death occurred in 1850.
John McCormack settled in the vicinity of Con- nersville very early, and in the act forming the county, his house was designated as the place for holding the first courts. Further reference is made to him in the history of Columbia Township.
Nathaniel Hamilton and family emigrated from Pennsylvania to Indiana Territory in 1810, and located above Brookville in the adjoining county, where they remained during the war of 1812, and in the spring of 1815 removed to what is now this town- ship, on land entered by a son, Adam Hamilton. Nathaniel, Jr., a son of the pioneer, was born in 1798, and is yet a resident of the vicinity where he, with his parents, located nearly seventy years ago. He is yet in possession of all of his faculties, with a clear mind, and is remarkably well preserved in body. Two of the sons of Nathaniel, Sr., were in the war of 1812.
In 1815, besides those heretofore mentioned (all of whom resided west of the river) there had located on the same side of that stream John Philpott, emi- grating from Kentucky, located in the northern part of the township in September, 1814 (on the Ezra Martin farm); Stanhope and Robert Royster, the former of whom served for a number of years as County Commissioner and one of the Associate Judges of the county; John Perin, a native of Mas- sachusetts, who (in 1811) settled on land adjoining Hinkson; Benjamin Sailor (of the family who set- tled early in Franklin County) resided on the present farm of A. B. Claypool; Paul Davis, son of George, and James Alexander, from South Carolina; Zach- ariah Glover and one Hazlerigg; a Mr. Lacy; Benja- min Booe, from North Carolina, settled in Franklin
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
County in 1810, and in 1814 removed to this town- ship; Avery Gatos, a native of Massachusetts, though for years a resident of New York, from whence he emigrated to this township in 1817.
James Brownlee emigrated from Ohio to Frank- lin County, from whence he was sent as one of the delegates to frame the State Constitution. He came to this township about the year 1816, and subsequently filled the office of Associate Judge, and was a man of some prominenco.
John Miller, from Scott County, Ky., settled west of Connersville in 1819.
Of those who settled east of the river early was William Sparks, who had early emigrated from Lau- rens District, S. C., and settled east of East Fork, in what is now Union County, and in October, 1814, removed to the Stephen Stoops place. James O'Dare, from the same State, settled in the same neighborhood about that time. South of Sparks located Nathan Aldridge, from Tennessee, in 1814. In the same vicinity and about 1814 or 1815 settled Samuel Harlan from South Carolina, James Tweedy, Corne- lius Williams and William Edwards.
Joseph Justice emigrated to Indiana Territory in 1811, and located in the vicinity of Connersville in 1815.
John Swift with his parents, from the State of New Jersey, settled in Ohio, and in 1818 came to what is now Connersville Township.
William Jones, from Brackon County, Ky. (though a Virginian), with parents settled here in 1816.
In 1813 Douglass Burton, with family, emigrated from South Carolina to Scott County, Ky., and in 1819 located on land north of Connersville, just over the line in Harrison Township, where the father died the suminer following, and soon thereafter the widow with her children removed to what is now the Infirm- ary Farm. Calvin Burton and brother Thomas, yet residents of Connersvillo and vicinity, are two of the number.
The following extracts are from a letter written for the Examiner, in which it appeared in 1878 over the signature of Brutus. The writer's early home was in the vicinity of Longwood, which he had been absent from for a period of fifteen years:
"Fifty years since I 'pitched my tent' on the shores of this beautiful stream (Williams Creek). Scarcely a soul lives here now that lived here then. What is called the 'rolling prairie,' the farm of Garner Clawson, was then owned by one Car- michael. He sold it to John Trent and John Alexander. Dan. iel Cuuningham, a Baptist preacher, owned the farm where Willis Ball's stone quarry now is, little dreaming that such huge slabs of flagging were lying beneath his hallowed feet, while Amos Smith, a brick mason, lived on the farm now owned by John Tate. John McCrory, an Irishman from Pennsylvania, settled where James Ochiltree now lives. He was a tailor by trade and a good citizen. He lived until
a few years ago, and died leaving a number of descendants, most of whom live in this county. At that time John and Benjamin Huston owned the farm now in possession of Robert Moffett. They sold it to John Kellum, a citizen from Preble County, Ohio. This farm supported a still-house under the control of John Philpott, who also run auother one on the farm now owned by Ezra Martin, but which belonged to him at that time. A little further up the creek lived an excellent character by the name of John Horsley. Frederick Sane lived on the same farm. Jonathan McCarty, a Member of Congress, owned eighty acres just west of Hors- leys, which in later years was known as 'Manis Porch,' and was a great resort for the boys. The farm is now possessed by Justice Reese and 'Dest-a-gob' was its occupant. John Philpott and his son Will entered the farm known as the Moffett farm in 1828, and erected a flouring-mill thereon. A postoffice was afterward established here called Philpott's Mills. The name was afterward changed to Longwood, by Ross Smiley, in honor of the home of Napoleon at St. Helena. Mr. Smiley was the Postmaster for a quarter of a century. Dr. Ball came from Ohio and settled where his son Willis now lives, and has long since gone to that bourne from whence there is no return. Jacob Smith, a Pennsylvanian, and a Revolutionary soldier, the grandfather of our fellow-citizen, Sanford Smith, settled on the farm upon which Sanford is now nobly supporting his estimable mother. It was at the battle of Trenton, that, being hotly pursued by the British, he took his stand on a high bridge, solitary and alone, and as the enemy advanced he would pitch them over the side of the bridge with his bayonet, far down in the water below. He disposed of a score or two in this way, when the enemy yielded, and Jacob came off victorious; he fought nobly. Zachariah Glover then lived where Sam Atherton now resides, and ran a still-house. He sold to John Smiley, and he to Stout Atherton. Isaac Martin lived at the cross-roads just east of here, and was known as ' Amazing Grace,' on account of its piety. Timothy Orr lived where Theodore Applegate now lives. John Hawkins entered eighty acres where Sisson Joe now lives, after which he bought of Daniel Campbell, 160 acres joining him on the east. John Philpott, Jr., entered the Uncle George Smith farm, and built a meeting-house on what is now John Ludlow's farm in the year 1842. He was a Uni- versalist in belief, and did all he could for the advancement of religion. The bouse was dedicated by a Methodist minis- ter by the name of Stone, who lived where Hamilton White now resides. Quite a number of the old pioneer preachers used to preach there, among whom were James Smith, Peter Wiles, Arthur Miller, George Campbell, Jacob Daubenspeck and a great many others. Still-houses used to be numerous. There was one at Benjamin Booe's, Josh Wallace's and John Trents'. It was at the latter place that a man by the name of Massey shot and killed a negro. Massey made his escape and never was heard of after. John Ludlow, who is still among us, came here in 1829 and is one of the oldest residents in this part of the county. * * * * * *
Jonathan John, from Kentucky, settled in the vicinity of Connersville in 1816. He resided on the hill west of the city and his name, as will be noticed by the reader who peruses the pages of this volume, was closely indentified with the business interests of the county. He was an intimate friend of the Indian trader, John Conner. His death occurred in 1838.
The Adairs, Russells and Martins settled in the township early. About 1819 the McCrorys, John and William, settled in the township. Jeremiah Worgh-
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
aman from Virginia, located along the river in 1811. John Baily and family, from the State of Kentucky, removed to Connersville in 1819, and sub- ยท sequently located on a farm five miles west of the vil- lage. Thomas White, from Tennessee, with parents, settled quite early in the township. Justice Wright located on Fall Creek in 1821. He was a native of Pennsylvania. As early as 1812 Joseph Minor, a native of Kentucky, located where his son Joseph now resides. In 1814 J. F. Marshall, a native of Vir- ginia, located in the township. William Edwards, a native of Maryland, settled here in 1817, also Rawl- ston Shields, a native of Pennsylvania, the same year. W. H. H. Tate settled here early.
Hon. Oliver H. Smith, in his "Early Indiana," thus speaks of one of the early settlers of the vicinity of Connersville: "In early times before the first land sales of the beautiful Whitewater Valley, where Con- nersville, Liberty, Cambridge City, Centerville and Richmond now stand, there lived upon the east bank of Whitewater, a mile above Connersville, a most remarkable woman by the name of Betty Frazier. She was a small, tough looking, rather swarthy, woman. Her husband, George Frazier, was a poor cripple, and with their children was entirely sup- ported by Betty. They had settled upon a small fraction of Government land, intending to purchase at the sales. The land office was at Cincinnati, and Gen. James Findley was the receiver. The spring of the year, after a severe winter, had come; the sales were to take place the next winter, and Betty had the season before her to raise the money to pay for her land. She commenced with a young stock of hogs, caring for them daily, driving them to the best mast, and preparing a good patch of corn for the fattening process. She had one horse only to tend her crop, and to ride to Cincinnati when she drove her hogs down to sell, and buy her land.
" One day about mid-summer she saw a horseman ride up to her cabin in full uniform. She met him at the bars: ' Well Gen. Hanna, how do you do?' 'Very well, Mrs. Frazier.' 'What on earth has brought you all the way from Brookville to my poor cabin ?' 'I am very sorry to tell you, Mrs. Frazier, that I am the Sheriff, and have an execution against your property.' ' Well, General, I always submit to the law; come with me to the stable and I will give you my only horse, as the best I can do.' There were no 'exemption laws' then. Betty and the General proceeded to the stable. It was a strong log build- ing with a single door, no window, overlaid with a solid platform of logs, and filled above with hay for the horse. The door fastened outside with a large wooden pin in a log. 'There, General, is the horse- take him.' The General stepped in and commenced
untying the horse. Betty immediately fastened the door outside, driving the pin into the hole to its full length, and left the General to his reflections while she attendod to her household affairs. Time passed away; night came on, but no relief to the captured General. Morning came, and with it came Betty. ' Well, General, how did you sleep last night.' 'Not very well. I am ready to compromise this matter; if you will let me out and show me the ford over White- water (the river was muddy and high), I will leave you and the horse and return the execution ' no prop- erty found.' 'Upon honor?' 'Yes, upon honor.' Betty opened the door. The General mounted his horse and silently followed Betty down to the river side. 'There, General, you will go in just above the big sycamore, and come out at that haw-bush you see.' The General started; at the second step both horse and rider were under water out of sight, and the chapeau of the General was floating down the river. Still, he being one of the pioneers, and his horse a trained swimmer, gallantly stemmed the current, and exactly struck the haw-bush, his horse swimming to the very. shore, while Betty stood on the bank scream - ing, 'I guess the Brookville officers will let me alone now nntil I have sold my pigs and bought my land.' The General rode on dripping wet to his brigade that mustered that day. But the end was not yet. Time rolled on; the pigs grew to be well fatted hogs. Betty mounted her pony; the little boys started the pigs for Cincinnati; they had ten days to get there before the land sales; the distance was about seventy miles. Nothing unusual occurred on the road until they arrived at New Trenton, at Squire Rockafellow's. The night was stormy; the snow fell deep; next morning found Betty at the usual bour on the pony, well wrapped, with an infant a few hours old on her bosom. She arrived with her hogs at Cincinnati the day before the sale, sold them for cash, and the late Gen. Findlay told me that she stood by his side on the box and bid off her land, with her infant in her arms. Surely, 'truth is stranger than fiction.' "
About the year 1818 on the Larkin's Sims farm just below Connersville was erected for that gentle- man, it is thought, the first frame house in the town- ship (outside of the village of Connersville.) It was built by John Perin.
In 1823 or 1824 the frame portion of the dwelling house of Thomas Hinkson was erected and the large stone house-the main building, which, by the way, is very antique in its style of architecture, was built in 1827, as shown by an inscription on a stone form- ing a part of the chimney.
The John Perin brick house on the N. Minor farm was built in 1824.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
EARLY SCHOOLS.
The first schoolhouse in the settlement along the western side of the river, and about Williams' Creek, was built prior to the spring of 1815; for it-the rude log cabin house-was standing there, on the Hinkson farm, at that time, and the following winter, 1815- 16, school was taught in it by Thomas Hinkson, Sr. At this time Nathaniel Hamilton attended the school. Mr. Hinkson was the teacher in that settlement for a number of years. He was a man of liberal educa- tion, having been schooled in his native county in a Catholic school. Mr. Hamilton is of the opinion that school had been previously held in this house by the same master. In this same settlement in 1819, in a log-cabin near where the Lockhart school - house now is, Miss Ingham is remembered as holding school. Later teachers in the same settlement were Hannah Hathaway, John Justice and Millie Perin. Subsequently the scholars too far to the north attend- ed one of the schoolhouses located in Harrison Township and described in the sketch of that sub- division.
In the settlement east of the river was what was known as "Solomon's school." An account of this school was written some years since by "Rambler," which is given below: "The house in which it was taught stood fifty or sixty rods nearly east of the present residence of John Stoops, near the south line of the land of Robert Williams, and was with slight exceptions such a house as all the girls and boys of those days got their education in. And from such schoolhouses, scattered over the great West, have gone out men of honest hearts, of strong nerves, of high and noble resolves, that have made their mark in the world. And could we trace through the high- ways, the by-ways, and the cross-ways of life all that attended that school, no doubt but we could find some occupying prominent public positions both in church and in state at the present time. We have never met any of the scholars of that school but two since 1822, and both of these were ministers in the Baptist Church (Elders George Harlan and William Sparks).
"The building was about 18x22 feet, of round logs, with a fire-place occupying one end of it, and a file of six or eight boys were usually detailed to carry in the back-logs, while the lesser ones carried in the foro, middle and top sticks, and occasionally this huge pile of wood and the fire made by it would cause the cry of fire to be raised by some who were watching other things closer than their books. The windows consisted of one log removed from each of the three sides of the building, slats placed vertically in the space, and newspapers pasted on those slats and to the log above, then the paper oiled with melted lard applied with a feather to
admit the light, then a temporary fortification, con- sisting of forks and poles was thrown up to prevent the stock from eating out the paper, thus saturated with the grease. The furniture in the room was as simple and primitive as the room itself. The writing- tables were one long board under each window and the same length of it, attached to the wall, and driv- ing pins therein, inclining a little downward at the outer end. At these the tables were placed, oach writer sitting with his face to the window. The seats consisted of blue ash saplings, cut the proper length,split in two, two holes bored at proper angles in each ond, and one in the middle for legs, then placed with the bark side up, the bark being all nicely shaved off. On these seats have we sat swinging our feet back and forth from early dawn to latest ovo, wishing we were anything else but a school-boy; wishing there was no such thing as a schoolhouse, school- teachers, school- books, pen, ink or paper in the world. Foolish, in- considerate, childish thought. But then we thought and acted and talked like a boy, but since we have viewed things from a different standpoint.
"Could the school-boy of the present day com- pare the stock of books now in use in the schools with that used in those primitive times, he could appreciate his advantages over those of the early set- tlers of the country. Geography, grammar, globes, out-line maps, and other modern facilities for study were neither seen nor talked of in the school-room of those days.
"There is one tribute of respect we willingly pay to the teacher, and that is, considering the time, the surroundings and the facilities, he taught a very good school.
"In those days there were certain inalienable rights claimed by the school-boys, which had been handed down from time immemorial from father to son, and that was the right to close the door against school- teachers about the holidays; a right, too, to which in some localities they still adhero with the same ten- acity that a descendant of Abraham adheres to his nationality. Now the big boys and the little boys were not willing that this time- honored usage should pass by unimproved on the present occasion. Accord- ingly a council of war was held and the subject dis- cussed in the most formal manner, the question being: Shall we bar out the teacher and make him treat ? was put and carried by such a vote that no veto could set aside. The next great question was, How shall the castle, windows, door and chimney be so fortified that a successful attack cannot be made either from the front, flank or rear. To do this, bolts, bars, benches, spikes, with a large lot of other weapons, offensive and defensive, were called into requision, not forgetting a good supply of fuel and provisions;
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